Trojans trample Warriors

FAIRFIELD — It took the Fairfield girls basketball team two minutes to find its footing in a Monday night matchup with Van Buren County.

The Trojans held the Warriors to under 10 in each of the four quarters, coming away with a 61-21 victory.

Van Buren held on as long as they could, but Fairfield was too much.

The Warriors trailed by one, 5-4, just over two minutes into the first half. It would be the closest Van Buren would come for the rest of the game. Fairfield held Van Buren scoreless for the rest of the quarter and ended with a 10-0 run to make it 15-4.

The Trojans were able to change the game with the press. They were able to create an plethora of turnovers leading to easy offense.

Fairfield head coach Pat Pacha says his teams pressure was the difference maker.

“Our pressure,” (was the difference) Pacha said. “I wasn’t sure how they could handle the ball, and that’s why we went to our press immediately and it paid dividends. We started to get deflections, leading to easy baskets.”

Fairfield didn’t slow down in the second. The Trojans busted the doors down, holding Van Buren to five points, while surging with a 26 point quarter, 11 of which came from Danielle Breen. Breen finished with a game-high 22. At the break, Fairfield held a 41-9 lead.

In the third, Fairfield continued to dominated. Fairfield won the scoring battle once again while holding Van Buren to under 10, 18-5.

The Trojans hit just one three in the contest, but it didn’t matter as Van Buren had no answer in the paint.

“We’re not a huge team in terms of size,” Danielle Breen said. “We can all cut, we can all run, and everyone was making good passes. That allows lanes for me and the team to get to the basket.”

Van Buren turned around in the fourth and outscored Fairfield, 7-2, but the damage was too great.

“We just didn’t execute, on the defensive or offensive end,” Van Buren head coach Marley Hall said. “We knew what they were going to do. No. 1 and No. 10 are aggressive, we knew they were going to shoot and we knew they were going to drive. We knew what we needed to do, we just didn’t execute.”

Along with Breen’s scoring, her sister Delaney Breen had herself a game, finishing with 16. Mallory Lyon and Savannah Hollander each added seven. Brynley Allison ended with four. Kelsey Pacha chipped in three and Anna Dunlap two.

For Van Buren, Zoe Best led the way with eight points. Shea Scott finished with five. Ivy Davison chipped in three. Annabelle Cormier and Kadence Nusbaum each added two. Jaelyn Boley ended with one.

Fairfield improves to 9-5 with the win, while Van Buren falls to 4-11.